In 1958, the Affiliated Secondary Art School of Nanjing University of the Arts (NUA) was built. Located on the campus of NUA, it has now become a distinctive, quality, and established art school with a long history, a strong artistic atmosphere, a strong faculty, abundant teaching resources, favorable schooling conditions, a flexible schooling mechanism, and strict management and regulation. Rooted in the educational principle of gradeur, brevity, profoundity, beauty,, it has focused on developing campus culture and made constant achievements including being rated as the Role Model of Art Education among Universities of Jiangsu Province.

Dedicated to cultivating excellent professional art talents and producing high-quality students for art colleges and universities at home and abroad, the Affiliated Secondary Art School relies on NUA's high-quality resources for art education including its experts and professors. By strengthening well-rounded education, faculty construction, and day-to-day teaching management, and constantly improving the cultivation mechanism, the School has achieved good results, producing a number of excellent students for art colleges and universities at home and abroad and training a bunch of artists renowned at home and abroad. Over the years, the proportion of its students of the year that enter universities has remained 90%. Many students have been admitted to well-known art colleges and universities at home and abroad including Central Conservatory of Music, China Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Beijing Dance Academy, Central University for Nationalities, Central Academy of Drama, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art, Nanjing University of the Arts, Donghua University, The Juilliard School, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Berklee College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Royal College of Music, and University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar.

The School is characterized by modern teaching methods and complete living facilities. It provides three kinds of programs, i.e., three years, five years, and six years, and has more than a thousand students on campus. It offers a variety of majors and major orientations such as Music Performance, Dance Performance, and Painting. It enjoys an experienced and dedicated teaching staff for general knowledge courses. Besides, it has founded a symphony orchestra, a Chinese orchestra, a choir, and a dance troupe.

Over the recent years, the teachers and students of the School have achieved remarkable results in many major professional events such as the Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music, the National Dance Exhibition, the National Youth Musical Instrument Education and Teaching Achievement Exhibition, the Achievement Exhibition of the Taoli Cup National Dancing Education Performance of China, the CCTV China Instrumental TV Competition, the National Vocational Students Skills Competition, the Literature and Arts Award of Jiangsu Province (the highest prize for music), and the Lotus Award of Jiangsu Province (the highest prize for dance).